Jesus is the Word of God
We spend our lives worrying about what we’ll eat and Jesus takes bread saying “I’m the bread of life, broken to feed worriers like you.”
We spend our lives worrying about what we’ll drink and Jesus takes a cup saying “This is my blood poured out for anxious souls like you.”
We spend our lives worrying about what we’ll wear and on the cross Jesus is stripped, so that we can be clothed in His righteousness.
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Audio (I had to re-record the last 3 minutes after the service).
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I’ve had many discussions under the title of “Christ in the Old Testament.” But perhaps the issues would be seen more clearly if we labelled the debate: “God in the Old Testament.”
And actually, the fact that those two titles sound quite different tells you everything you need to know about the dire Christlessness of modern God-talk.
We (and I include myself here in my knee-jerk western deism) imagine that there’s a bed-rock deity called “God” who is obviously the God spoken of in Genesis. And then we discuss whether the Patriarchs also knew this shadowy figure called Messiah. And we debate how 'Messianic' certain discrete verses are, and to what degree the author was aware, and to what degree the first audience was cognisant of specific promises and appearances, etc, etc. But we almost never challenge that view of “God” which we all signed off on in the beginning!
Thus from the outset God is defined as – essentially – ‘the God of monotheism’ (broadly conceived) and Christ is defined as a nuance to a more foundational divine reality. Then we spend all our time debating how clear the nuance was!
But what if... from the beginning, Elohim was not the god of Aristotle! It’s a shocking thought I know, but let’s run with it. What if... He makes all things by His Spirit and Word and says “Let us”? And what if this is not something that needs to be kept in check by a hermeneutic that expects only an omnibeing? And what if Yahweh Elohim stoops down and breathes into Adam’s nostrils and what if, under the name “Voice of the LORD”, He walks in the garden in the cool of the day and encounters the couple as a divine Person. And what if Adam and Eve weren't blind/idiots/default-unitarians?
How much clearer Adam and Eve saw God than us! Without the “benefit” of our western theistic presuppositions, they see the “very God from very God.” They don't think in that exact language, but they certainly don’t think in unitarian categories either. They think of Elohim who creates through His Word and Spirit. They think of Yahweh Elohim - the hands-on God - who breathes life into man. They think of 'the Voice of the LORD' who walks in the garden with them. And in Genesis 4:1 they think they have begotten the LORD-Man at the first attempt (the timing was wrong, but the hope was not, cf 1 Pet 1:10).
They simply didn't have a monadic sub-structure to their doctrine of God. They were not proto-Arians, labouring under a philosophical strait-jacket. To imagine that the Divine Messiah was something extra to their simple belief in “God” fails spectacularly to get at true Old Testament faith. But it does reveal some disturbing assumptions about who we think “God” is.
Who is this “God” for whom His Word/Messenger/Messiah is an addendum? Why on earth would we begin the Scriptures with that “God”? And if the primary truths about God are unitarian, is our own faith primarily unitarian, just with a Jesus nuance?
The question is deeper than “Christ in the Old Testament.” It’s deeper even than “God in the Old Testament.” It’s the question of God. Which explains why the issue can get quite heated at times. But also why it’s so crucial.
This is my 369th post for 2012 and here are the top ten in terms of views.
But wait, before the big reveal... Here's the blog's new Facebook page. LIKE ME!
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10. Jonathan and Charlotte – a Parable of the Kingdom
Here are some other responses to cultural phenomena:
What Jimmy Savile, Jeremy Forrest and Lance Armstrong teach us…
Living beyond the end of the world (a reflection on the Mayan apocalypse)
Bert le Clos's "Behold My Son!"
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9. What is sin? Falling short? Rebellion? Something else?
This was probably my favourite post of the year. I had a pop at some other evangelical shibboleth's in these:
It’s not about rules it’s about Working Hard at My Relationship With God…
Grace is not a cheese sandwich
Memorialist Communion (in church and in marriage)
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8. Five minutes on the bible and slavery
Here were the others in that series:
Five minutes on the bible’s sexual ethic
Five minutes on the conquest of Canaan
Five minutes on the bible and gender equality
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7. 321 – The Story of God, the World and You
Exciting things happening with 321, I'm looking forward to developing them in 2013. Here's some of the philosophy behind it:
The importance of explaining Trinity and original sin and "union with Christ" in evangelism
321 and the Gospel Events: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Repentance (part one, part two)
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6. The Road to Emmaus – Sermon on Luke 24:13-35
On the subject of preaching, here are posts on my three favourite preachers
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5. Legal recognition of marriage and the way of Jesus – by Paul Blackham
Paul wrote some other excellent guest posts for me this year:
Translating “Son of God” – Paul Blackham
The Insider Movement (a series of 4 posts) – Paul Blackham
Paul Blackham: A Sermon on Fear
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4. Bible Read-Through in 120 Days – wanna join?
This read-through was very popular and Matthias also organised a Greek audio bible too. Download it for free:
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3. A Trinity Sunday / Jubilee Sermon
Other more thematic sermons of mine:
Does God exist? How does He fit with Science?
Why is there so much suffering?
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2. Stephen Fry offers good advice on depression – by ditching his atheism
This was a provocative post looking at the interaction between pastoral care and evangelism. If your "gospel" can't help you deal with life it's no gospel. And if you have to borrow Christian convictions in order to care for people, that might point you to the good sense of Christianity.
On the theme of pastoral theology, here are some posts that were close to my heart.
Jesus is Utterly, Horrendously, Maddeningly Infuriating
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1. Fear and Faith: Derren Brown undone in 60 seconds by his own subject
I'm a big fan of Derren Brown but his claim to have shown God as the ultimate placebo was just silly. Here are some more posts about atheism:
Not the God story, the Hero story
An introduction to humanism – transcript and comment
“A universe with a god would look very different to a universe without one.”
Beginnings and Before Beginnings
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There you have it. Thanks for making blogging so enjoyable. And don't forget to LIKE ME, LIKE ME, LIKE ME!
Language slightly updated...
“Christ took our nature upon him that he might sympathise with us. Almost every creature is sympathetic to its own kind, however ferocious to others. The bear will not be deprived of its cubs without resistance: she will tear the aggressor to pieces if she can. But how great the jealousy of the Lord Jesus for his people! He will not lose any of them. He has taken them as members of himself, and as such watches over them with fondest care. How much will a man do for one of the members of his body (like a hand or an eye) before he suffers it to be cut off? Think not O man, that you would do more for your members than the Son of God. To think so would be blasphemy, for the pre-eminence in all things belongs to him.
Yes, he is acquainted with all your temptations, because he was in all things tempted as you are. Are you tempted to deny God? So was he. Are you tempted to kill yourself? So was he. Are you tempted by the vanities of the world? So was he. Are you tempted to idolatry? So was he; yes even to worship the devil. He was tempted from the manger to the cross. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. The head in heaven is sympathizing with the feet that are pinched and pressed on earth, and says , ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’"
On Thursday I wrote a piece on Emma's blog about how I coped through her illness. I hope it might help others too. Here are the headings...
The Priesthood of Christ is vital for you both...
You are their vicarious hope-r...
You must believe in the bondage of the will...
A theology of the cross is vital...
A theology of the cross is not the same thing as “Misery loves Company”...
The goal is not getting back to how things were...
That feeling of impotence is inevitable, it’s good and it’s bad...
You will need to change...
Giving an addict what they want is not love...
Firm, buoyant love is the tone to strike...
Don’t do it alone...
Headship means being a prayer warrior...
This is not a distraction from real life, this is it...
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_ysVlRLR1s]
Martian came down, down, down
With a dirty frown, frown, frown
Pointed his ray gun in our face
Said "We don't like the human race
Forces in the sky don't wanna be friends
Nothing you can do to make amends."
"So take me to your leader now
We're gonna make him bawl and bow
Then cry, cry, everybody cry.
We are waging warfare from on high.
Angel came down, down, down,
Shining all around, round, round
Telling us "Please don't be afraid,
Heaven is coming to your aid,
Jesus in the sky, He wants to be friends
Born to you to make amends"
"So take our lovely Leader now
Heaven's Present has come down
And sing, sing, everybody sing
Christ is waging peace on everything."
That's why we sing
Our Brother is King
His peace to bring
To everything.
CHORDS:
Verse: Em B
Chorus: Em C G D
Every year Eastbourne hosts a major airshow called Airbourne. The F-16 fly-pasts rattle your fillings loose and make your bowels shudder. People either love that kind of stuff or hate it. I think it's beyond awesome.
One time I was down at the seafront watching the show with a friend and the Red Arrows came on - the Royal Air Force's display team. They were extremely impressive and we were oo-ing and ah-ing until they did their trademark love heart formation. Over the tannoy they dedicated it to some member of their publicity team.
"Cute" I thought.
"Idiot!" said my friend.
Huh?
"Idiot!! Oh you idiot, you idiot, you total moron!"
"What's the matter?"
"The dedication!! I was supposed to ask them whether they'd dedicate the love-heart to my parents! It's their 40th wedding anniversary. I was supposed to ask them and I forgot."
"Oh" I said, my keen pastoral insight shining through.
To be honest there was nothing to say. His father spent his life in the RAF. It was their ruby wedding anniversary. They were also at the seafront listening to the same commentary. His mother had asked him that morning to make the request as a surprise for his dad.
He remembered many things about his parent's anniversary that day. But this one task slipped his mind. A simple mistake to make. But there was no taking it back. The moment had completely passed - an irrevocable error.
And boy did I feel for him.
Because life is made up of irrevocable errors. The deadline passes, the door closes, the opportunity vanishes. The words have left your mouth, the email has been sent, the damage has been done. And there's no getting it back.
Of course the temptation is then to wallow in regret. We go over the mistake again and again, turning back the clock in our minds as though we could somehow reverse the mistake through remorse.
But there is no getting the toothpaste back into the tube. Because God has designed the world in just this way.
He drives Adam and Eve out of paradise and determines that humanity must journey on to the city, not back to the garden.
He calls Abraham out of Ur and never back.
It's one-way traffic through the Red Sea - they are coming out of Egypt, never to return.
It turns out that the curses and blessings of the covenant are discrete phases the people must pass through - first the judgement, then blessings on the other side.
They don't avert judgement by cleaning up their act but bow their head to the coming exile.
Christ doesn't avoid but passes through death to resurrection, calling His people to likewise take up their crosses.
Death then resurrection and no resurrection without death.
The very passage of time marks the relentless forward motion of the God of hope - the Redeemer God who is always moving on.
Through every stage of life - in every moment even - the Lord shuts the door behind us and beckons us forwards.
Of course we don't like moving on. We'd rather go back over our mistakes and redeem them ourselves. We'd prefer to recapitulate our fallen humanity rather than allowing Christ to do it. Our regret is a kind of mental salvation by works. But it's futile and faithless.
Instead we ought to be resurrection people. Those who know that redemption lies ahead, on the other side of these one-way gateways. We look to the Lord who will restore to us the years the locust has eaten (Joel 2:25). But restoration is not in our hands and it's not in the past. It's in the Lord's hands and we receive it in the future.
Therefore we are prisoners of hope. We must live by a forward looking faith in the redeeming Lord, leaving restoration in His hands and moving forward through countless points of no return.
Life is full of the irrevocable. The Lord wants it that way. So often the irrevocable makes us wallow in regret. Yet the very opposite should be the case. The door has been locked behind us and we should stop banging on it. Instead we are beckoned forwards towards resurrection, knowing that life may consist in the irrevocable but that nothing is irredeemable. And for those in Christ, all things will be.
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I preached on Romans 8:31-39 last night. Audio here.
As a reflection on that same passage (and sermon), Emma wrote this post. It's what I should have said!
Some previous sermons of mine:
Romans 1-7 - Confidence in Life
Romans 8 - Confidence in Suffering
Just guest-blogged on A New Name. Here's the opening...
Picture an evangelist. What are you imagining? Perhaps a motor-mouth with the enthusiasm of a labrador pup, the skin of a rhinoceros's hide, the social skills of a barge pole and the patter of a "Phones 4 U" sales rep.
Now picture a pastoral carer. What are the images now? Surely it's endless cups of tea, frowns of concern, shoulders squeezed and pained benedictions: "Aw bless" they say with an empathy perilously close to patronising.
In the popular Christian imagination, these are two different species. One of them we're very happy to send off to "The Mission Field." Then, with the wild-eyed enthusiasts out of the way, the pastoral people can settle down to their head-cocked expressions of condolence. And never the twain shall meet, right?
At Transformission Mike Reeves spoke of life "in the flesh" and "the spirit of slavery" that dominates those who are in Adam.
When you think of the realm of "the flesh" (or the "sinful nature" - NIV), what do you imagine? So often our minds run to 'the naughty things'. Gross disobedience. Licentious living.
That might be an outworking of the flesh. But in Romans 8:15, Paul charactierizes life in the flesh as bound by a spirit of slavery. This spirit is contrasted with the Spirit of adoption. It's whatever is opposed to our gracious adoption by a generous Father. Similarly in Galatians 4, Paul makes the contrast between slaves and sons and the slavery is all about bondage "under the law". In Philippians 3 the horrific evil of "those dogs" - the circumcision sect - is that, through their legalism, they were "putting confidence in the flesh." (Philippians 3:1-11).
Life in the flesh might be about sex. But - even worse - it might be about circumcision! Vain self-confidence can be found in the party animal. But how much more can such vanity exist in the champion of temperance. And with the added stench of self-righteousness!
We can be distracted from much bigger battles when our struggles with "the flesh" merely focus on "bad behaviours." As John Gerstner has said: “The thing that really separates us from God is not so much our sin, but our damnable good works.”
The devilish thing about religious carnality is that it doesn't appear to us as carnality. Instead the "spirit of slavery" makes us toil away at our "damnable good works". And just as the licentious sinner gets less and less of a kick out of their drug of choice, so the self-righteous prude finds less and less goodness to take pride in.
Take the example of 18th century moralist Samuel Johnson. At Transformission, Mike read to us from his prayer journals. Each entry is a window onto life "in the flesh." Here is the diary of a carnal man:
September 18, 1738 - Oh lord, enable me by your Grace to redeem the time which I have spent in sloth, vanity and wickedness, to lead a new life in your faith, fear and love; and finally to obtain everlasting life.
1757 - Almighty God, enable me, from this instant, to amend my life that I may not finally lose the things eternal.
1759 - enable me to shake off idleness and sloth
1761 - I have resolved till I am afraid to resolve again. Yet, hoping in God, I steadfastly purpose to lead a new life.
1764 - I have made no reformation; I have lived totally useless, more sensual in thoughts, and more addicted to wine and meat. Grant me, O God, to amend my life. My purposes, from this time, to avoid idleness. To rise early. To read the Scriptures.
A few months later: I have now spent 55 years in resolving; O God, Grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions. I resolve to rise early, not later than six if I can.
1765 - I purpose to rise at eight, Because though I shall not rise early, it will be much earlier than I now rise, for I often lie till two.
1775. When I look back upon resolutions of improvement, Which have year after year been made and broken, Why do I try to resolve again? I try, because reformation is necessary. I try, in hope of the help of God.
It is pitiable, laughable and tragic. This is what "the spirit of slavery" does to a person. And it is every bit as fleshly as the debauched hedonist. Only Christ can save.
Listen to Mike's excellent talks here.
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